Antjie

Antjie

Friday 13 July 2012

Beautiful Toddler Flower Dress...


Using a size 3.25 hook or D hook US or size 10 UK and cotton yarn. 
This dress fits a 4 to 6 year old depending on their size. 
It is 30 inches long WITH strap, and 23 inches wide at
chest (body)

Abbreviations:
Ch = Chain
DC = Double Crochet
sl st = Slip Stitch
MC = Main color
~ ( ) ~ = Repeat what is in this section
SC = Single Crochet

Making the flowers:
Step one: The middle of the flower
With secondary color ch 4 and sl st to first chain to form a ring. DC 17 in the ring.
Sl st in beginning dc to complete the center of the flower.

Crochet over  loose ends at the beginging and when fasten off a flower,  turn it
around and get crochet hook and pull the loose yarn through the backs of the
previous stitchs to hide it.

Step two: The petals of the flower
With MC sl st to join in to top of any of the previously made DC’s and ~ (chain 9
and sl st to next stitch then chain 9 and sl st to next stitch) ~ when you get to the
end, chain 1 and cut the yarn and tighten stitch to fasten well.

Step three: Putting the flowers together
Now that you’ve got one flower complete, it’s time to start making the flowers
where they can connect to one another. The second flower you will want to make
the center as before, but when you start to make the petals, ch 9 and sl st as usual
until you get to the 15 th ch, DO NOT sl st it to the flower, what you want to do is,
instead of just chaining 9, chain 18 instead. And then leaving yourself about a inch
and a half of yarn extra, cut the yarn. Now rip out 9 of the chains you just did,
leaving you with 9 chains still left. Now slip that through one of the loops of the
previous flower you made (See picture below) once you put it through one of the loops, then sl st to the flower your currently making, then chain 9 and repeat, slip it through the next loop of the flower. Sl st and ch 1 and cut yarn to fasten off.
You should have two flowers with two petals attached, like a link in a chain.
Now repeat this 15 more times til you have a row of 17 flowers connected. For
the 18 th flower you need to do the flower as usual except when you get to the
11 th chain, connect it to one of the flowers like before, but now on the 13 th chain
you need to make two petals that are unattached to each other, I want you to ch
9 sl st, ch 9 sl st, leaving 2 petals unattached, then on your 15 th ch connet to the
next flower making a halo of sorts, a connected ring . sl st, ch 9 slip it through
other flower and sl st , ch1 fasten. Forming a ring of flowers. Now you have 9
connected flowers in a ring.

Making the body of the dress:
Step one: Connecting the flowers to the body of the dress.
Now that you have your first row of flowers done, it’s time to make the body.
Now every flower you made before has 16 petals. 6 petals on top of the flower 4
petals connected to the next flower (2 petals on each side) and 6 petals at the
bottom. Now on one of the 6 petals at the top (you choose which is top cause
doesn’t matter at this point, just a ring.) sl st your MC into the first loop on theഊright and SC in all 6 loops (working right to left) then continue gathering up the
next petals of the next flower, Single crocheting all way across, 1 sc for each loop
of each flower on the ring like you would a normal pattern chain. Then next row
SC in all stitches around. (54 sts around)



Step two: Making the body
Now the 3 rd row of the body you want to sc all around but after the 54 th stitch I
want you to do 5 foundation SC’s.

Then ch 1 turn and SC for the row. ( 59 sts total) The flap will be where the
buttons get attached to later.

Now SC back and forth 4 more times, but at the end of the 5 th row on the after
the 54 th stitch (5 stitched from the end of the row) I want you to chain 2 or 3, your
choice on how big of buttons you plan to use. If you want to put bigger buttons
just SC to the 52 or 53 chain and add 4 or 5 chains to make the hole bigger. I used
small buttons, so I stopped at sc number 54 , ch 2 and sc the rest of the row. Ch 1
turn and sc back and forth 2 more times making 4 rows in between each button
hole. Add a button hole after every 4 rows (2 rows of back and forth sc’s) For a
total of 36 rows of the body.

Step three: Top of dress
With second color, DC 1 in first stitch, DC 2 in second stitch, skip one stitch, ~ (DC
3 in 4th stitch, skip one.) ~ And repeat for rest of row, (If you have your little one near you, would be best to measure how big it is on her, because it can be easy to over do your dc's here) when you have desired width ch1 turn and ~ (DC 3 in 4 th stitch, skip one.) ~ giving you 2 rows. If you need to decrease to make it tighter, feel free to decrease when needed.

Ch1 cut yarn to fasten off. One of the spaces will allow you to put a button at the top later when you add them, just use one of these spaces as a button hole.

Step four: Straps of dress
With the back of the dress facing you, on the left flap, count over 15 stitches, and
on the 15 th stitch I want you to do 28 foundation sc’s and slst and count over to
the 42 nd stitch (remember you started on 15 so count 27 more over) and sl st intoഊthat chain. Now sc into 43 rd chain then start to sc to your foundation chain. Do
this one more time, giving you 3 rows of sc for the strap. Now the 4 th row of the
strap DC 3 in each sc on the strap to start to add a wavyness to it. (84sts) At the
end slst to top of dress and DC 3 in each DC from the previous round. (252 sts) sl
st to dress ch1 fasten off. Repeat for other strap as well.

Making the Bottom of the dress:

Step one: Adding flowers to each other
Okay now lets work on the bottom. You have your first row of flowers done. Now
we just have to add width to it.

Second row of Flowers:
Now make your first flower and on the 15 th chain make it like before, connect it to
the MIDDLE two loops of flowers on the first row( top flowers all have 6 loose
loops, connect it in loops 3 and 4 of the top flower. Now the second flower I want
you to make it as normal but when you get to the 13 th chain you need to make
two petals that are unattached to each other, I want you to ch 9 sl st, ch 9 sl st,
leaving 2 petals unattached, then on your 15 th connect them to the upper flower
like before, in loops 3 and 4 of top flower. Do this for the whole round, making 18
flower total for second row as well.

Make rows 3 through 5 the same way.

Making the flower connectors.

Lets connect everything
Now that you your 5 rows of 18 flowers done for a total of 90 flowers, it’s time to
finish connecting connecting those loose loops together.ഊTo make the connectors you use your secondary color and ch 4 sl st to join and
form a ring, then chain 9 and connect it to one of the loose petals in between
rows 1 and 2 of flowers. And SC in loop, ch 9 slip into loose loop and sc into the
ring to connect, repeat for all 8 loose loops. Then repeat for all loops ~ (Ch9, slip
through loop, sc in center) ~ Do this to connect all flower in all the rows, becareful
to do this with care so that you don’t miss a loop and have a loose one floating
around.

Finishing up:
Sewn on your buttons and work in any loose ends that you might have missed.